Where the Iron Crosses Grow

By: Robert Forczyk

Narrated by: Michael Prichard

Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's Summary

The Crimea was one of the crucibles of the war on the Eastern Front, where first a Soviet and then a German army were surrounded, fought desperate battles, and were eventually destroyed. The fighting in the region was unusual for the Eastern Front in many ways, in that naval supply, amphibious landings, and naval evacuation played major roles, while both sides were also conducting ethnic cleansing as part of their strategy - the Germans eliminating the Jews and the Soviets purging the region of Tartars.

From 1941, when the Soviets first created the Sevastopol fortified region, the Crimea was a focal point of the war in the East. German forces under the noted commander Manstein conquered the area in 1941-42, which was followed by two years of brutal colonization and occupation before the Soviet counteroffensive in 1944 destroyed the German 17th Army.

©2014 Robert Forczyk (P)2015 Tantor

Superb History

Sure h a great and informative piece of work, I found many facts that I had not previously known, and the narrator kept me engaged in the story throughout, highly recommended.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

names, places,troop strength and commanders

This book is for the hardcore military historian who enjoys reading the statistics of a military campaign. It start with interesting overview of the regions history with an enticing nod to what happening there today, but quickly, or too quickly for me, became a monotonous compilation of what battalion was where, how many and what kind of weaponry they had and who commanded them. Mr Pritchard did a fine job in my opinion, but given the material I had to give up on this one.

6 of 9 people found this review helpful

Might be a good book...

Hard to tell, because of the ridiculously horrid narrator. Absolutely pitiful. Painful to listen to. Gonna try to read the book. Don't buy this audiobook.

5 of 8 people found this review helpful

Good but wordy

The story and the region are great. What should be left out was the spelling out of each and every title, caliber of gun, and affiliation to platoon, company, regiment, or battalion. A nice map as well.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Too dull don't recommend

This sounded like a text book. There was almost no sense of the people or there ordeals. Just too dull

3 of 5 people found this review helpful

Excellent

Fills the history buff with the lacking knowledge of the Crimea in the 20th century

An informative work!

This book centers on the little discussed Crimean front during the also under studied, in the West, Russian Front of the Second World War.

I would say this is not for someone just beginning to study this subject, but for someone with a decent grasp on the history already. This work expands one's knowledge on the subject.

One might say overly detailed and perhaps tedious at times, however, I didn't think so.

Besides the general WWII aspects covered, some general history of the region is also discussed.

Could have been a great story - But wasnt

Half the book is just numbers and the narrator is horrible, it's like the book had no editor.

Hard work

80% Of the book is like a dump of a detailed event log of the Crimean wars. Hard to get through. Very few stories of what happened on the ground, earning those iron crosses.

Remarkable story with too much noise …

I recently had an opportunity to listen to this story on Audible. I have an absolute fascination for true WWII stories such as Soldat, Japanese Destroyer Captain and many other numerous Holocaust survival biographies. I jumped in with both feet to experience the years of horror unleashed in Central Europe to understand a little more about the engagements between the Wehrmacht and Red Army.

Even though this is a well written history of the Crimean theater, it suffers from the mentioning of numerous individuals both important and less so, battalions, brigades, divisions and armies. Many acronyms of organizations also confuse the story further. Numerous locations within the Crimea where relentless battles took place back and forth are also listed in minutiae. Sadly, the author does not give sufficient accounts of individual foot soldier experiences whilst providing some high-level command discourse and thinking. That is not to say, all experiences are ignored as there are many cases of bravery and sacrifice detailed within the pages. However, the history feels very clinical and removed from the personal experiences of individuals in horrific bloody battles.

I believe that this a book is better served for a reader than a listener. Perhaps then with context such as detailed maps and images of locations and individuals the story can be better digested. The narration of this book is extremely poor adding to my negative experience.

Worst Audiobook Ever

Any additional comments?

The narration of this book is so bad I could not listen to it. I've come back to it 3 times but it sounds like it's being read by a Robot. An awful performance that's ruined what is probably a good book.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

should have bought the actual book

This book is a fascinating read full of well researched facts however the robotic style of the narrator seriously detracts from the books merits.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Interesting theater of WW2

What did you like best about Where the Iron Crosses Grow? What did you like least?

I was occasionally confused by following the ebb and flow of the campaigns.

What about Michael Prichard’s performance did you like?

What I liked best was the excellent pronunciation of Russian and German places, equipment and names. It makes such a difference to enjoyment of an audible book. I speak fluent German and the German was all perfect.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Very academic military work

Extremely in depth and well researched, a good geographical familiarity with Crimea is an absolute must before you start listening

Story suffered.

Interesting story but overfilled with too much tech detail about weapons and formations which I think took something away from the storytelling of the events.

Not for my "read again list."

What disappointed you about Where the Iron Crosses Grow?

the lack of feeling

What didn’t you like about Michael Prichard’s performance?

Any additional comments?

This book is historically correct and extremely detailed.
Every engagement noted with the exact name and number of the units engaged being entered in the text.
Unfortuantely, the incessant repeatition of unit Id's detracts so much from the narrative, it's like reading a table of football scores.
A book for the "train spotters" rather than for those wishing to read about the actions of the decorated soldiers.

Good listen and history repeating itself again?

The pronunciation of artillery and infantry in dialogs is really old school out dated but otherwise a good listen

2 of 4 people found this review helpful